Category Archives: Lake Park

Grassy Pond Sinkhole –April Huntley

When I was going down there from 2010-2011 this area of land was roped off with caution tape (not the temporary kind). I was told when they had problems with their piping and had to drain down the pond to fix it, when they refilled it, they did so too fast and caused a sink hole here. I’m not sure what kind of info can be found on it since it is a military installation. Chris says years back he went down there and the docks were sinking, he was told there was a sinkhole in the pond, I think. A couple more pics of the area I saw to follow. I guess it was remediated.

-April Huntley

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Community Assessment Group and Internet access @ LCC 2013-07-22

Valdosta Mayor Gayle was standing next to the video ghetto after the county’s rather rudimentary SPLOST VII presentation Monday morning, so I asked him why I hadn’t seen anything about Internet access either Valdosta’s or Lowndes County’s SPLOST lists? He said that was because it was being handled by the Community Assessment Group (CAG). What’s that?

Mayor Gayle said CAG is a group of representatives from the county and all the local cities, the two school districts (Valdosta and Lowndes County), VSU, Wiregrass Tech, the Industrial Authority, the Chamber, and he may have said others. It’s an attempt at better local cooperation, specifically about issues that cross all the various local governmental and non-governmental groups. So far they’ve had two meetings, Continue reading →

ZBOA meets today (April 2) @ ZBOA 2013-04-02

The Lowndes Valdosta Zoning Board of Appeals meets today (Tuesday April 2) at 2:30pm in the Valdosta City Hall Annex Multi Purpose Room.

ZBOA Meeting

ZBOA Meeting

There are two Lowndes County cases in Lake Park.

LOWNDES COUNTY CASES:

2. VAR-2013-03 — Roger Budd Jr. (1000 Lakes Blvd. Lake Park) Variance to ULDC Chapter 5.04.09 (E) as it pertains to the design standards for permanent off-site signs on State maintained road.

3. VAR–2013-04 — Ben Futch (5443 Danieli Drive North, Lake Park) Variance to ULDC Chapter 5.02.01 (D)(8) and 5.02.01 (D)(9) as they pertain to the minimum building setbacks and maximum floor area of an accessory structure.

and one city of Valdosta case.

CITY OF VALDOSTA CASES:

4. APP-2013-01 — Wesley Foundation (1601 N. Patterson St.) Variance to LDR Section 214-1 as it pertains to the minimum setbacks for the R-10 zoning district.

Full agenda available at : http://www.valdostacity.com/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=6106

ZBOA doesn’t often have observers so come and see your government working for you.

-gretchen

Speakupaustin: a major MSA and local government transparency

The Austin reporting program is in addition to the posting a City Council agenda more than a week in advance (here’s the 28 Feb 2013 agenda already on 16 Feb 2013) and including the entire board packets with working papers and other backup documentation with the minutes. Austin televises and webcasts its meetings live, with close captioning and transcripts online. They don’t limit the number of citizens who can speak, or the subjects they can speak on, and they televise and webcast all of them as well. Plus citizens can speak on specific agenda issues, and Austin has an online forum for citizen suggestions on which citizens can vote on the ones they like.

Is there still back-door politics in Austin? For sure. But you can see a lot more of what is going on in Austin than they can about the local governments here, and citizens have a lot more input.

If Valdosta and Lowndes County (and Hahira and Lake Park and Dasher and Remerton) want to be treated like a major MSA, they might consider following Austin’s lead. Instead of decreasing citizen input by exiling all citizen speakers to the end of a meeting and limiting the number who can speak, while not even putting board packets online, consider continually increasing local government transparency and citizen input.

-jsq

Planning Commission yesterday: did you know? @ GLPC 2013-01-28

Did you see an agenda or an announcement that the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) was meeting yesterday? Agenda @ GLPC 2013-01-28 Nor did LAKE. Matt Martin, Valdosta City Planner, usually sends an agenda to Gretchen, but there were no Valdosta items on this agenda, so he apparently didn’t even get one. And the county still doesn’t publish GLPC agendas, so if there was an item on there that affected you, how could you know? Does that seem right to you?

On the agenda were three Lowndes County rezoning items, all involving C-H (Highway Commercial), and one Lake Park rezoning case, going to R-P (Residential/Professional). Here’s a summary of the cases. You know, if I can do this in a couple of minutes by typing it in from a photograph that Gretchen took, Lowndes County could do it in a second by pressing Export to PDF. Now that there’s a new Chairman, maybe he’ll say they should do that.

Lowndes County,
Final action
Tuesday 12 Feb 2013 		4. REZ-2012-20 Corbett
US 41 South and Newsome Road, Valdosta
Request to rezone ~5 acres from E-A (Estate Agriculture) to C-H (Highway Commercial)
5. REZ-2013-01 Barrentine
102 Davis Road East, Valdosta
Request to rezone 1.2 acres from C-H (Highway Commercial) to R-1 (Low Density Residential)
6. REZ-2013-02 Interstate Land Management
Briarwood Road along I-75, Valdosta
Request to rezone 4.87 acres from R-1 (Low Density Residential) to C-H (Highway Commercial)
Lake Park,
Final Action
Tuesday 5 Feb 2013 		LP-12-2012-01 Karen K. Nolan and Blanche C. Bush
105 Broadway Street, Lake Park
Request to rezone 0.46 acres from R-15 (Single Family Residential) to R-P (Residential/Professional)

-jsq

Work Session Minutes @ LCC 2011-01-10

Ordinance or policy? That question comes up for at least two items, Special assessment and Speed control devices, in the minutes of the 10 January 2011 Work Session of the Lowndes County Commission. -jsq

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
MINUTES
WORK SESSION
Monday, January 10, 2011
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What people are interested in having their pennies spent on —Gretchen Quarterman

Received yesterday on Allocate resources in a yearly budget? -jsq

As I was out campaigning, it was interesting what people are interested in having their pennies spent on. Many want better sidewalks and safer places to ride their bikes. One Valdosta police officer particularly commented on the dangerous bike riding conditions (especially on North Oak Extension). Many in the un-incorporated areas want increased fire protection and it seems that everyone better drainage (and I don't mean simply open ditches for rain water) and still others would like to see some soccer fields.

It seems like we should be able to do some prioritizations and then save up for these things. I guess that will be up to the new commission chairman and members and they will have to figure out how to move forward without a SPLOST immediately in 2014.

Personally, I'd like to see a public accounting of how the previous SPLOSTS were spent. And not in big categories, but the actual details… But that's just me.

-Gretchen Quarterman

-jsq

Allocate resources in a yearly budget?

Received today on SPLOST VII lost. -jsq

After reading this post, a question came to mind. Have we the citizens of Lowndes County actually been encouraging our elected officials to be fiscally irresponsible with public funds by allowing SPLOST to continue? if elected officials had to allocate resources in a yearly budget, we may actually encourage our officials to allocate resources towards public projects that would be desirable by the public rather than a priority in pthe minds of our elected officials.

-Bill Grow

Congratulations Dexter Sharper, Demarcus Marshall, Chris Prine, and Justin Cabral!

Congratulations to Valdosta’s new state rep for District 177 Dexter Sharper who won by 67% to 33% over opponent Glenn Gregory, who fought a spirited and clean campaign. I look forward to Representative Sharper meeting with the governor and working for our community without compromise under the gold dome in Atlanta.

I’ll come back to the other statehouse races in a separate post. Ditto the other statewide races. Meanwhile, congratulations to some local winners below.

Congratulations new Lowndes County Commissioner for District 4 Demarcus Marshall, winning 64.91% to 35.09% after spirited debate and much agreement with opponent John Gates. I look forward to Commissioner Marshall grappling with education, jobs, tourism, and personnel down at the county palace.

Congratulations on re-election, Lowndes County Sheriff Chris Prine! Challenger J.D. Yeager fought a good fight, but the voters said 63.53% to 36.47% they did not want to go back to the previous administration. I look forward to Sheriff Prine continuing to protect the safety of all the citizens of Lowndes County, including those in the cities.

Congratulations Solicitor General Justin Cabral on retaining your post 51.56% to 48.44%! Very honorable mention to challenger Jason Cain, who canvassed himself pretty close to winning.

Congratulations Joyce Evans Continue reading →

SPLOST VII lost

Speaking of transparency, Lowndes County voters defeated SPLOST VII 18,864 to 17,923 (51.28% to 48.72%). Kay Harris in the VDT today quoted Ashley Paulk with this reason:

The defeat came as a surprise to Mayor John Gayle but not to Lowndes County Commission Chairman Ashley Paulk, who said he warned the mayors of the five municipalities that if they continued to argue over LOST, the local option sales tax, that voters would turn against SPLOST in retaliation.

“I told them at the beginning if they didn’t stop arguing over a few percent of the LOST and refused to leave the numbers as is by taking the county’s offer, that taxpayers were going to turn against the SPLOST,” said Paulk.

“Voters are disenchanted with the way their local governments have gotten greedy and they’re tired of the arguments over money. They voted SPLOST down because they don’t trust us with their tax dollars, and it’s a real shame.”

I would agree bickering over the LOST pie was one of the reasons SPLOST lost, and add to that the opaque back-room processes by which the SPLOST VII projects were selected. While the library needs updated and expanded facilities, the lack of documented decision process for the architect and lack of adequate explanation for that probably didn’t help, either, nor did the county’s puzzling lumping of the library in with Parks and Rec. which they later tried to clarify. Perhaps the voters are tired of seeing transparency be a constant source of tension. And I’m using the library as just one example. I could equally cite the project for a farmers market under the overpass, which I think is a bad idea because the farmers market already has a fabulous location at the historic Lowndes County Courthouse, and so far as I know none of the vendors who sell there were even asked if they wanted a new location, much less the public who buy there.

At the public-not-invited SPLOST VII kickoff speeches the last speaker said they were not there Continue reading →